Mainstreaming the Mainframe: DevOps, Automation, Unified Deployment
The mainframe is alive and well. That big metal beast in the data center is not going anywhere anytime soon—nor are its applications. “If mainframe applications disappeared tomorrow, planes couldn’t fly, people wouldn’t get paid, and the economy would come to a halt,” wrote Forrester analysts in a recent report, “Digital Transformation Needs Mainframe DevOps.” […]
Q&A: BDO’s Coffman on Change Management, Security and DevOps, Part 2
As we covered in part one, DevOps’ best asset and biggest risk factor may be one and the same: swift and precious change. In part two, we continue our discussion of the challenges and solutions with Deena Coffman, managing director of BDO Consulting’s Technology Advisory Services practice. David Geer: What specific tools and technologies can […]
Synthetic Monitoring: The Start of the Monitoring Journey
Under pressure to innovate and deliver rapid updates to their applications, developers often place monitoring as an after-thought. In today’s world, where a slowdown can translate to customer attrition and an outage can lead to millions of dollars in losses and negative press, ensuring satisfactory response time has evolved to be one of the most […]
The DevOps.com Containerization and Microservices Survival Guide
Containerization and microservices seemed to have leaped out of nowhere and smack into the center of the enterprise IT scene. But neither leaped from nowhere. Both containerization and microservices have been part of the fabric of enterprise tech for some time—within Linux for containers and service-oriented architecture for microservices. Largely, thanks to containerization, both now […]
Industry Alignment: Supporting Real-World DevOps Workflows
In our ongoing work to advance the interests of customers around adoption of Agile, DevOps and continuous delivery, the theme of evolving workflows to better suit human-scale work cycles often comes to the fore. While it’s easy to say that build, test, release and monitoring capacities should feed into each other to promote continuous collaboration, […]
Chef Boards the DevOps Express with CloudBees, Others
You often may have more questions than answers as you progress along your DevOps journey. Which tools should I choose? Do these tools work well together? What have other people done in my situation? You’re often left Googling to find the right integrations and piece together an architectural solution. Today, I’m excited to announce that […]
Introducing DevOps Express!
The DevOps Institute (DOI) is proud to join industry leaders as a founding member of the DevOps Express. The DevOps Express is a bold initiative between tool providers and others to create a solutions-oriented approach that will make enterprise DevOps adoption easier using popular technologies spanning multiple solution components. Working together, DevOps Express members have […]
Communication Skills Matter in DevOps
While the precise definition of DevOps is an evolving matter, a simple way to describe it is this: DevOps is a change of mindset toward an agile and inclusive approach to IT. DevOps enables IT professionals to think and work beyond technology silos, thereby deriving meaningful results at a faster rate than with more traditional […]
Q&A: BDO’s Coffman on Change Management, Security and DevOps, Part 1
DevOps’s best asset is swift and valuable change, which also may be its biggest risk factor. DevOps certainly challenges change management and security. We recently discussed these challenges and the solutions with Deena Coffman, managing director at BDO Consulting’s Technology Advisory Services practice. Here is part one of that exchange. David Geer: What kinds of […]
Top 5 DevOps Practices to Improve Security in Engineering
We’ve all been there … A new application or feature needs to be deployed yesterday and the last thing anyone wants to do is address security requirements. On the flip side, the very last thing anyone wants to address later is a security breach or a cost associated with non-compliance. Not only is it a […]
Software Assurance Takes Center Stage at Developer Day
Cloud Security Alliance and SAFECode Develop Training for Improved Software Security Using Cloud and DevOps Practices Software assurance is one of the most important and possibly one of the least understood areas of software development today. Software assurance is a comprehensive process that encompasses a set of design, coding and testing methods for ensuring that […]
GRC: A Key Ingredient in DevOps’ Secret Sauce
By now, surely everyone has seen cooking competition shows such as “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Top Chef,” in which people compete to create and serve the best dishes as quickly as possible. These hit TV programs are like the DevOps world, which also consists of people creating and releasing the best software as fast as they […]
DevOpsDays and Diogenes: Thoughts from a First-Timer
I went seeking honesty at a DevOps conference and met Diogenes. Diogenes of Sinope was a controversial figure in ancient Athens who was known for walking around the famed ancient city—some say in the nude— during daytime with a lamp in his hand. He parried inquisitors who questioned his strange habit of using a lamp […]
Continuous Monitoring: The Role of DevOps and APM
To enable faster and better response to changing customer needs, enterprises are increasing their release frequency for applications. This, in turn, demands tighter alignment and collaboration than traditionally has been seen between the line of business, development and IT operations, driving the need for enhanced collaboration, automation and information transparency among these groups. To achieve […]
5 Leadership Keys to Enterprise Agility
Much like living creatures, organizations that can best adapt to their surroundings are the organizations that are most likely to thrive. For enterprises, that means being able to adapt swiftly to business and market conditions—and at the very least adapt more swiftly than their competitors. For years, building an agile enterprise has been the focus […]
Sounding the Death Knell for Agile: Not so Fast!
Some say DevOps is the next step in Agile’s evolution. Software development is changing rapidly; if you don’t change with it, modern development may leave you behind. DevOps connects information technology operations with development and vice versa; this is a big change for the art of software creation. Agile was not designed with this new […]
DevOps Storytime: The Line, The Loop and The Cube
In a time not so long ago, but long enough to be before the mainstreaming of magical ideas such as “configuration as code” or “platform as a service (PaaS),” in a period where the enterprise IT shops were ruled by the one-two punch of Six Sigma and ITIL, there were three magical artifacts sought by […]
Dismantling Inefficiency: The DevOps Point of View
I recently caught up with Paula Thrasher, application delivery lead at CSC and DevOps pioneer in government circles. In our conversation, we discussed a number of important topics including cross-functional teams, software supply chains, paying down technical debt and her search for passionate people to hire. To succeed in managing large projects, she’s taking a […]
DevOps: Achieving Process Without Too Much ‘Process’
While there’s no fundamental conflict between IT service management (ITSM) and DevOps, DevOps does bring new and different techniques for getting work done and interacting with the rest of the organization. ITSM people who are used to frameworks such as ITIL and COBIT tend to regard the IT department as a “service provider” and the […]
5 DevOps Techniques to Improve Software Hygiene
Thinking about frequent food contamination outbreaks, perhaps the old adage, “You are what you eat,” should be modified to, “You are what you eat—as assembled across an unknown supply chain.” Even foods advertised as fresh and healthy can be quite the opposite. And it could be because of just a single unhygienic practice hidden within […]
Can Culture Detract from Success with DevOps?
Collaborative culture is considered to be an essential best practice for enterprises. DevOps culture correlates strongly with enterprises that achieve the highest level of business performance. However, is it possible that an organization can get overly fixated on organizational culture improvements? Can culture actually detract from achieving success with an enterprise DevOps transformation? An article […]
REP SPOTLIGHT: Daysha DevOps Solutions
DevOps Institute: Tell us a little about your organization. Daysha DevOps Solutions: Daysha DevOps Solutions is a leading IT services and solutions company focused on helping companies to deliver their IT projects, transform their capabilities and ultimately to provide value to their customers and stakeholders. Our goal is to help organizations benefit from disruptive technologies, […]
First-Time Quality for Software on a Blockchain Network
There is probably more trust in the world today than at any other point in history—not necessarily by choice, but because of our use of software to carry out almost every type of transaction. The use of blockchain networks brings visibility to those networks of transactions: Information about an asset that was once held by […]